The report said the Met spends 85% of its IT budget on “keeping the lights on” for legacy
technology that often dates back to the 1970s. The force has 750 separate systems, of which 70% are
“redundant” – a figure expected to rise to 90% by 2015 – at a time when budget cuts mean IT
spending has to be cut by £60m within three years.

According to the report, one core Met Police operating system dates back to a 1970s baggage
handling system.

“The Met does not use technology as well as it could. It has built up its current provision over
a number of years without a coherent strategy. Crime is higher as a result and criminals with
smartphones often have better technology than London’s police officers,” it said.

Computer Weekly sources at the Met Police have indicated that Beaton’s departure from the CIO
role followed soon after a critical internal report by consultancy Deloitte that is quoted widely
in the London Assembly document.

Deloitte raised concerns about “the capacity and capability of the Met’s Directorate of
Information” that Beaton led. A replacement is yet to be appointed.

“It is clear that the Met’s technology department – the Directorate of Information (DoI) – is
still not making technology work for police officers,” said the London Assembly report.

“The Met recognises that the DoI is not organised in the right way, with the right skills; it
also acknowledges that it needs to train and develop current staff, and possibly bring in new
people.”

The report added: “The force has not had a coherent ICT strategy for years and senior leadership
in this area has been lacking… Police officers lack the technology to do their jobs as productively
and effectively as they could. Crime is higher as a result.”

The report, titled Smart Policing, lists across 48 pages a catalogue of failures in the
Met’s IT strategy, such as:

Of 19 basic technology operating systems required by a constable to carry out frontline roles
away from police stations, only one – mobile telephony – was consistently available and even that
was not always effective.

A parallel IT infrastructure is in place at the Met - police officers use their personal
smartphones since these can be more effective at helping them do their jobs than the kit provided
to them.

The Met is taking longer than planned to develop its new ICT strategy – in December 2012 the
plan was promised within 100 days; in April it was put back to publication in July; it is now due
in October or November.

Outsourcing deals are locked into long contracts with a single supplier, and are not delivering
value for money. Some 60% of IT spending goes to Capgemini in a £115m per year contract – the
report recommends taking a different approach when that deal expires, expected to be by 2015.

The Met relies heavily on bespoke IT systems despite packaged applications being available. The
bespoke IT is expensive, costly to maintain and difficult to upgrade.

The force has failed to collaborate with other police and London emergency services to find
ways to cut IT costs, believing that “its size set it apart from other forces”.

“Our main systems are old and there is a lot of replacement that needs to be done, there is no
doubt about that. But the aim shouldn’t be replacing systems – the aim is kit that helps officers
fight crime, and if behind that sit systems that require them to help do it, then so be it,” he
said.

John Biggs, chair of the London Assembly Budget and Performance Committee, said the force simply
cannot afford to get its IT strategy wrong again.

“Every other person has a smartphone in their pocket and yet the Met are only just starting to
look at rolling out similar tools. They should also be working on predictive crime mapping, like
that used in Los Angeles, to get officers in the right place at the right time to deter criminals
and reassure the public,” he said.

"Furthermore, if investment in ICT can improve productivity, which it clearly can, then
hopefully we can move beyond the seemingly endless Mexican stand-off over police numbers and
instead focus on overall capacity. Not cutting numbers, but making spending decisions based on the
safest possible outcome from the resources we have. Such an approach is long overdue."

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